(written by Astute33 )
Date: April 27th 2002 - Revision 1
Disclaimer: The below guide is based on my own personal experience and it is your own decision whether to follow it. I will not be liable for any loss of NPs if you equip your NeoPet base on the below recommendations.

Part 1: General Setup
Before going out to buy equipment for your NeoPet, you have to first decide your NeoPet's fighting style. In this Part, I will introduce some common styles and their setup.

Section 1: Balanced Setup

You want to have a balanced fighting style, with offensive, defensive and special effects weapons (such as freezing, stealing abilities). This setup is more versatile and should handle most situations well. Equipping will generally be quite easy. Even if one item is being stolen, it will not have a crippling effect.

Equipment Setup

Slot 1 - Primary Weapon 1 (max Attack Icons)
Slot 2 - Primary Weapon 2 (max Attack Icons)
Slot 3 - Secondary Weapon (Attack with some defense)
Slot 4 - Defense Weapon (max defense)
Slot 5 - Healing item
Slot 6 - Freezing item or Single Use item
Slot 7 - Bomb or Single Use Item
Slot 8 - Stealing item or Single Use Item

Section 2: Defensive Setup

You want to be more defensive and wear your opponent down slowly. Defensive weapons will be your main concern. This setup will be very good if you are able to get the best defense weapons, however, the equipment maybe more expensive. You would want to be able to defend against as many icon type as possible while still able to attack effectively.

Equipment Setup

Slot 1 - Primary Weapon 1 (max Attack Icons)
Slot 2 - Secondary Weapon (Attack with some defense)
Slot 3 - Secondary Weapon (Attack with some defense)
Slot 4 - Defense Weapon (max defense)
Slot 5 - Defense Weapon (max defense)
Slot 6 - Healing item (preferable with multi-use)
Slot 7 - Freezing item or Single Use item
Slot 8 - Stealing item or Single Use Item

Section 3: Offensive Setup

You want to be more offensive and concentrate on maximum attack Icons of different Icon type. This style is for NeoPets which have very high Health and have little concern for defense. Different types of offensive weapons is equipped to get round all types of defense.

Equipment Setup

Slot 1 - Primary Weapon 1 (max Attack Icons)
Slot 2 - Primary Weapon 2 (max Attack Icons)
Slot 3 - Primary Weapon 3 (max Attack Icons)
Slot 4 - Bomb
Slot 5 - Bomb
Slot 6 - Healing item
Slot 7 - Freezing item or Single Use item
Slot 8 - Stealing item or Single Use Item

Section 4: Other Setup

There are other ways to setup your NeoPet's equipment, such as having mainly single-use items like snowballs and muffins, or other theme just for fun. These special setups can also be effective, but is usually for specific purposes. Usually, these are not very versatile.

Part 2: Weapon Selection Criteria

Here, I will list out some factors which will affect your weapon selection. I will use the Balanced Setup as a reference as it is the most common and effective setup.

Section 1: General considerations

Below are the general considerations when selecting your weapons. Points will be in order of importance.

1. Budget - How much are you willing to spend on each weapon. After allocating the budget, you can then search for the appropriate weapon to fill the slots. Note that expensive weapons are not always good and good weapons are not always expensive.

2. Species - Some species have cheap and good species weapons. Always check for species weapon before looking at the general weapons.

3. Opponent Type - Are you are going for 1-player challengers or 2-player battledome fights?

This will affect your weapon selection as human opponents are more versatile and unpredictable than 1-player challengers.

Section 2: Offensive weapon considerations

Below are important factors when selecting an offensive weapon. Points will be in order of importance.

1. Attack Icons - The number of Attack Icons is the power of the weapon, so you would want to get the weapon with the most icons. Some weapons have a range of icons, such as 1 to 4 Icons, for such weapons, you should take the average (ie, if it is 1 to 4 Icons, the average is about (1+4)/2 = 2.5 Icons. For 2-player fights, the Icon Type will be of equal importance.

2. Attack Icon type - Some Icon types are easily blocked or avoided. For example, Earth and Phyiscal Icons are very common, and there are many defensive weapons which blocks some amount of Earth / Physical Icons. Try to mix and match your weapons so that it does a few types of Icons. In general, try to have at least 3 Icon types for the 2 main weapons.

Use below list as a guide for Icon Type selection:
Earth and Physical Icons - Common: Most opponents will equip some item to block these Icons
Dark, Fire and Water Icons - Average : Some opponents will equip items to block these Icons
Light and Air Icons - Rare : Most opponents will not have much defense against these Icons

3. Block / Other abilities - These are bonus, if it doesn't add too much to the cost, you can select weapons which blocks or gives other additional abilities. For secondary attack weapons, you will want it to have some Blocking abilities to compliment your main attack weapons.

Section 3: Defensive weapon considerations

Below are important factors when selecting a defensive weapon. Points will be in order of importance.

1. Defense Icon Type - Some Attack Icon types are very common. For example, Earth and Phyiscal Icons are very common, Dark, Fire and Water are uncommon, Light and Air are Rare. So when choosing Defensive weapons, select those which blocks the more common icons.

3. Defense Icons - The number of Defense Icons is the power of the weapon, so you would want to use the weapon with more blocking icons especially for the common icon types.

4. Attack / Other abilities - These are bonus, if it doesn't add too much to the cost, you can select weapons which attacks or have other abilities.

Section 4: Special weapon considerations

Below are important factors when selecting special weapon types such as freezing, stealing items. Points are not in any particular order.

1. Freezing weapon - The safest bet would be on items which will freeze 100%, such as Hypnotic Helmet or Freezing Potion. This will give you more control when fighting. However, these are very expensive and may not be within your budget.

2. Stealing weapon - If you want to use a stealing weapon, go for those which have better chance of success. Otherwise, you will end up wasting a lot of turns during combat. In general, stealing is more of a fun ability, most serious battlers will not bother to use a stealing weapon.

3. Healing item - Select one that is close to your NeoPet's maximum health, if you have a budget constraint, buy the best one you can afford. Some species have special species healing item.

Part 3: Offensive Weapon Selection

Section 1: Species Offensive Weapon

There are many species weapon which are very cheap and powerful, if you have a tight budget (below 100,000 NPs). You should study the available species weapon for your NeoPet before checking the general weapons usable by all species. I will list out the good species weapon below in alphabetical order. Species without good weapons will not be included. Very good species will be marked with an *. All weapons will have at least 4 Attack Icons. For details, check it up at http://idb.pinkpt.com/ or post in the neoholic forum.

Aisha - Golden Dual Blade Aisha Sword

Bruce - Bruce Icicle Spear, Fish Bone Bruce Sword

Buzz - Splendid Buzz Sword

Chia - Chia Stomper, Jagged Chia Sword

Chomby - Chomby Slingshot, Steel Chomby Sword

Cybunny - Cybunny Rotten Carrot Attack, Cybunny Utility Belt, Cybunny X Ray Glasses

*Elephante - Elephante Stunray, Enamel Elephante Face Mask, Enamel Elephante Sword

Eyrie - Ancient Eyrie Battle Mask, Ancient Eyrie Power Wand,

Flotsam - Flotsam Ice Shell, Flotsam Trident

Gelert - Gelert Wand

Grarrl - Grarrl Claws of Doom

Ixi - Ixi Indestructible Helmet

Jubjub - JubJub Helmet Of Doom, Mighty JubJub Sword

*Kacheek - Kacheek Pebble Lobber, Oaken Kacheek Sword, Kacheek Fire Cannon, Kacheek Ice Cannon

*Kau - Kau Knight Helmet, Kau Mouth Blade, Kau Knight Boots

Kiko - Kiko Water Cannon

Koi - Koi Battle Gloves

Kougra - Kougra Claws

Kyrii - Kyrii Rocket Boots, Kyrii Protectogoggles

Lenny - Dazzling Steel Lenny Mask, Dazzling Steel Lenny Sword

*Lupe - Iron Lupe Sword , Iron Lupe Helm, Sturdy Iron Lupe Boots

Meerca - Meerca Boomerang, Meerca Squirt Bottle

Mynci - Mynci Helmet

Nimmo - Nimmo Apple Bomb, Icy Nimmo Sword

Peophin - Mighty Peophin Flute, Mighty Peophin Helmet, Enchanted Peophin Blinkers

Pteri - Pteri Egg Amulet

Quiggle - Quiggle Boomerang

Skeith - Regal Skeith Staff

Techo - Mighty Techo Helmet

Tonu - Hardened Tonu Boots

Usul - Ornate Usul Gloves

Wocky - Golden Wocky Blade

Zafara - Rugged Zafara Short Sword, Rugged Zafara Staff

Section 2: General Offensive Weapon

Below are weapon recommendations grouped by price. Only general weapons usable by all species are listed. Prices may fluctuate, the price range given is for reference only.
Note:
1. Always check for species weapons first, there are many species weapons which does more icons and cost much less.
2. I only form combos for general weapons which are close in price, if your NeoPet uses a species weapon, mix and match your own combo.

Good Weapons costing below 1,000 NPs

1. Mud Mixture - Once/Battle
Attack : 5 Earth Icons
Heals 1 - 5 health
Comments: Staple weapon for beginners to intermediate battledomers, 5 Icons is a lot of damage and it heals too!
Combos: Any other weapon!

2. Dirty Snow - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Earth, 2 Air Icons
Blocks : 2 or more Earth and Air Icons
Comments: Earth Icons are easily blocked, but it also blocks Earth which is very common. Good all round weapon for beginners or those who do not want to spend too much
Combos: Mud Mixture, Fire Snow, Brain Tree Splinters

3. Fire Snow - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Fire, 2 Light Icons
Blocks : 2 or more Fire and Dark Icons
Comments: Fire and Light Icons are usually more difficult to block. Good all round weapon for beginners or those who do not want to spend too much
Combos: Mud Mixture, Dirty Snow, Radioactive snow.

4. Brain Tree Splinters - Once/Battle
Attack : 2 Earth, 2 Fire, 2 Dark Icons
Comments: 6 Icon attack for 1K is very cheap, can do a lot of damage with 2 of these. Fire and Dark Icons are not easily blocked.
Combos: Mud Mixture, Dirty Snow

Good Weapons costing around 1,000 to 5,000 NPs

1. Attack Fork - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Water, 1 Dark, 2 Physical Icons
Comments : 5 constant Icons with Water and Dark is not easy to block.
Combos: Sinsis Gauntlet, Tyrannian Amulet, Immense Rubber Axe of Doom

2. Bronze Short Sword - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Fire, 2 Dark, 1 or 2 Physical
Comments : 5 to 6 Icons attack is quite decent for its price, fire and dark icons are not easily blocked.
Combos : Tiki Amulet, Scarab Stone Slingshot, Tyrannian Amulet

3. Radioactive Snow - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Earth, 2 Dark Icons
Blocks : 2 or more Earth and Light Icons
Comments : Earth icons are easily blocked, but it also blocks Earth icons which are very common.
Combos: Sinsis Gauntlet

4. Tyrannian Amulet - Multi-use
Attack : 3 Earth, 2 Fire Icons
Blocks : 1 to 4 Water Icons
Comments : Opponents using Dark Battle Duck will faint if you use this with Moon Staff!
Combos : Attack Fork

5. Immense Rubber Axe Of Doom - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Earth, 2 Dark, 1 to 2 Physical Icons
Blocks : 2 Earth, 1 to 3 Physical
Comments : 5 to 6 Icons is good for its price even though the icons are quite common. It blocks Earth and Physical too, thats the reason why we want it!
Combos: Sinsis Gauntlet, Attack Fork

6. Sinsis Gauntlet - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Fire, 2 Light, 1 or 2 Physical Icons
Comments : Good mix of attack icons which combines well with many weapons.
Combos : Attack Fork, Radioactive Snow, Immense Rubber Axe of Doom

Good Weapons costing around 5,000 to 25,000 NPs

1. Lost Desert Dagger - Multi-use
Attack : 3 Earth, 3 Fire Icons
Comments : 6 constant Icons, value for money even though Earth is easily blocked.
Combos : Tiki Amulet, Scarab Stone Slingshot, Attack Fork

2. Scarab Stone Slingshot - Multi-use
Attack : 4 Earth, 2 Light Icons
Comments : 6 constant Icons, value for money. Not as desirable as LDD due to the Earth icons, but still a good weapon.
Combos : Lost Desert Dagger, Bronze Short Sword, Attack Fork

3. Tiki Amulet - Multi-use
Attack : 3 Earth, 3 Light Icons
Blocks : 1 to 5 Earth Icons
Comments : 6 constant Icons and blocks Earth Icons which is very common.
Combos : Lost Desert Dagger, Bronze Short Sword, Attack Fork

Good Weapons costing around 25,000 to 100,000 NPs

1. Plastic Halloween Fork - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Fire, 2 Dark, 2 Physical Icons
Comments : 6 constant Icons which are more difficult to block.
Combos: Hand Painted Scarab, Tiki Amulet, Scarab Stone SlingShot

2. Hand Painted Scarab - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Fire, 2 Light, 2 Air Icons
Blocks : 1 or more Water and Physical Icons
Comments : 6 constant Icons which are difficult to block. Good against Battle Ducks.
Combos: Plastic Halloween Fork, Tiki Amulet, Attack Fork

Good Weapons costing 100,000 to 1,000,000 NPs

1. Snowball Club - Multi-use
Attack : 5 Water, 1 to 5 Physical Icons
Comments : 6 to 10 Icons is excellent for its price. Water is not easily blocked.
Combos: Sinsis Sword, Hand Painted Scarab, Plastic Halloween Fork, Lost Desert Dagger, Scarab Stone Slingshot, Tiki Amulet

2. Battle Duck - Multi-use
Attack : 5 Water, 1 to 5 Physical Icons
Comments : 6 to 10 Icons is excellent for its price. Water is not easily blocked.
Combos: Sinsis Sword, Hand Painted Scarab, Plastic Halloween Fork, Lost Desert Dagger, Scarab Stone Slingshot, Tiki Amulet

3. Sinsis Sword - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Fire, 2 Air, 2 Light, 1 to 3 Physical Icons
Comments : 7 to 9 Icons is excellent especially with the good mix of icons. A Staple weapon for seasoned battledomer.
Combos : Dark Battle Duck, Battle Duck Snowball Club, Plastic Halloween Fork, Tiki Amulet, Attack Fork

4. Dark Battle Duck - Multi-use
Attack : 5 Water, 5 Dark Icons
Comments : 10 constant Icons is awesome for its price. Dark and water is not easily blocked. Staple weapon.
Combos : Sinsis Sword, Hand Painted Scarab, Lost Desert Dagger, Tiki Amulet, Scarab Stone Slingshot

5. Honey Potion - Once/Battle
Attack : 13 Earth, 1 to 3 Physical Icons
Comments : Good for use after freezing opponent.

Powerful Weapons above 1 Million NPs

If you are rich enough to acquire the below weapons, I believe you should be capable of forming your own weapon combos.

1. Zaptwig - Multi-use
Attack : 5 Earth, 5 Light Icons
Comments : Expensive for the number of icons, but excellent for combining with Dark Battle Duck.

2. Portable Kiln - Multi-use
Attack : 11 Fire Icons
Comments : Expensive for only one Icon type, luckily its not easily blocked.

3. Draconian Generals Sword - Multi-use
Attack : 7 Physical Icons
Blocks : 2 Fire, 5 Earth Icons
Comments : Attack icons are easily blocked, but it also blocks Earth Icons which is very common. It is a bit too expensive for what it does.

4. Icy Battle Duck - Multi-use
Attack : 5 Air, 5 Water Icons
Comments : Icons are difficult to block. Good for combining with other weapons.

5. Lishas Wand - Multi-use
May attack or give item
Attack : 2 Dark, 4 Light Icons
Special : Gives an UltraNova
Comments : May attack or give item, random effect is fun but sometimes risky.

6. Mask Of Coltzan - Multi-Use
Attack : 8 Fire Icons
Blocks : 2 to 6 Fire and Dark Icons
Comments : Attack Icons are not easily block and it also block some Icons.

7. Battle Plunger - Multi-use
Attack : 3 to 7 Water, 0 to 7 Physical Icons
Blocks : All Water Icons
Comments : Good against Battle Ducks, attack is random, range from 3 to 14 Icons.

8. Meukas Snot Trail - Multi-use
Attack : 6 Earth, 6 Water Icons
Comments : 12 Icons with 6 water which is not easily blocked.

9. Rod Of Nova - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Light, 1 to 2 Physical
Blocks : 0 or all Dark Icons
Special : Heal 15 Health, gives 3 Novas
Comments : Attack is weak, but it sometimes blocks, always heals some points and gives Novas too!

10. Sword Of The Air Faerie - Multi-use
Attack : 6 to 24 Air, 1 to 3 Physical Icons
Comments : Attack Icons range from 7 to 27, Air is difficult to block, but the range is big which means risky.

11. Asparachucks - Multi-use
Attack : 10 Physical Icons, 4 Earth Icons
Comments : 14 constant Icons is very good for it's price, icons are easy to block though, it is a good combo for Sword of Skarden or Dark Battle Duck

12. Carrotblade - Multi-use
Attack : 12 to 21 Earth Icons
Comments : Only one type of Icon, easily blocked, but not easy to block all.

13. Noxious Carrot Blade - Multi-use
Normal Attack : 13 to 19 Earth Icons
Against Lupes : 12 to 25 Dark, 10 Physical
Comments : Good against Lupes, otherwise, it seems that Carrotblade is as good and cheaper

14. Jhudora's Potion - Once/Battle
Attack : 16 Dark, 1 to 10 Physical Icons
Comments : The most powerful bomb, best use when opponent is frozen.

15. Hubrids Puzzle Box - Once/Battle(3 Turns to use)
Attack : Take 1/3 of Opponent's Current Health
Comments : Only good against opponents with lots of Health.

16. Rod Of Supernova - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Light, 1 to 2 Fire, 1 to 2 Physical Icons
Blocks : 1 or 2 Fire, 0 or all Dark
Special : Heal 40 Health, gives 3 Supernovas
Comments : Attacks, Blocks, heals and gives items too!

17. Sword Of Skardsen - Multi-use
Attack : 15 Dark, 1 to 9 Physical Icons
Comments : 16 to 24 Icons is good value for it's price.

18. Dark Faerie Collar - Multi-use
Attack : 10 Dark Icons
Blocks : 4 Dark Icons, 0 to 5 Light Icons
Reflect: Dark Icons
Comments : Not really very powerful for it's price, it's expensive due to the rarity.

19. Faerie Slingshot - Multi-use
Attack : Strong Hit (1/3 Chance)
17 Earth, 12 Light, 7 to 30 Physical
Weak Hit (2/3 Chance)
2 Earth, 2 Light, 1 to 3 Physical
Comments : 5 to 59 Icons, extremely big range, very fun to use.

20. Rod Of Dark Nova - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Dark, 2 Fire Icons
Blocks : All Dark and Fire Icons
Special : Heal 35 Health, gives 3 Dark Novas
Comments : Attacks, Blocks, heals and gives items too!

21. Attack Pea - Multi-use
Attack : 24 Earth Icons
Comments : 24 Icons is awesome, easy to block, but hard to block all

22. Seasonal Attack Pea - Multi-Use
Attack : 20 Earth, 8 Light Icons
Comments : 28 Icons is even more crazy, earth is easy to block, but light is more difficult.

23. Monoceraptors Claw - Multi-use
Attack : 6 Light, 6 Earth, 6 Fire, 1 to 6 Physical Icons
Comments : Good mix of icons, but price is too high.

24. Illusens Staff - Multi-use
Attack : 13 to 14 Earth, 1 to 5 Physical Icons
Reflect : All Dark Icons
Special : Heals when Health turns red
Comments : Attacks, reflect and Heal when you need it. Nobody would bear to sell it. Complete Illusen's quests to get it.

25. Wand Of The Dark Faerie - Multi-use
Attack : 20 Dark, 1 to 10 Physical Icons
Reflect : All Light
Special : Heals 20% of Max Health when health reach red
Comments : Attacks, reflect and Heal when you need it. Nobody would bear to sell it. Complete Jhudora's quests to get it.

Part 4: Defensive Weapon Selection

Section 1: Species Defensive Weapon


Aisha - Golden Aisha Shield

Blumaroo - Blumaroo Face Mask

Bruce - Padded Bruce Jacket

Chia - Chia Stomper

Chomby - Chomby Power Helmet

Cybunny - Cybunny X Ray Glasses

Draik - Silver Draik Armour

Elephante - Enamel Elephante Face Mask, Enamel Elephante Shield

Eyrie - Ancient Eyrie Battle Mask, Ancient Eyrie Crest Shield

Flotsam - Flotsam Ice Shell, Flotsam Trident

Gelert - Gelert Wand

Ixi - Ixi Indestructible Helmet

Jetsam - Majestic Jetsam Shield

Jubjub - JubJub Helmet Of Doom, JubJub Speed Boots, Mighty JubJub Shield

Kacheek - Oaken Kacheek Shield, Oaken Kacheek Sword

Kau - Kau Knight Helmet, Kau Knight Shield

Kiko - Enchanted Kiko Shield

Koi - Koi Battle Gloves, Enchanted Koi Shield

Korbat - Korbat Chestplate

Kougra - Kougra Metallic Shield

Kyrii - Kyrii Protectogoggles

Lenny - Dazzling Steel Lenny Mask

Lupe - Iron Lupe Collar, Iron Lupe Helm, Sturdy Iron Lupe Boots

Meerca - Meerca Propeller Hat

Mynci - Mynci Helmet

Nimmo - Nimmo Apple Bomb, Icy Nimmo Battle Helmet

Peophin - Mighty Peophin Flute, Mighty Peophin Helmet, Enchanted Peophin Blinkers

Pteri - Pteri Egg Amulet, Pteri Precision Helmet

Scorchio - Scorchio Wing Shields

Skeith - Regal Skeith Staff, Skeith Shield

Techo - Mighty Techo Helmet

Tonu - Tonu Leather Shield

Usul - Ornate Usul Collar, Ornate Usul Shield

Zafara - Rugged Zafara Shield

Section 2: General defensive Weapon

Below are weapon recommendations grouped by price. Only general weapons usable by all species are listed. Always check for species weapons first, there are many species weapons which blocks more icons and cost much less. Prices may fluctuate, the price range given is for reference only.

Good Weapons costing below 1,000 NPs

1. Frozen Collar or Large Metal Shield - Multi-use
Blocks : 2 Air, 2 Earth, 2 Water, 2 Fire Icons
Comments : Blocks various types of Icons, good defensive weapon for it's price.

2. Dirty Snow - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Earth, 2 Air Icons
Blocks : 2 or more Earth and Air Icons
Comments : Good defence, can block Mud Mixture attacks. Attack Icons are good too.

3. Fire Snow - Multi-use
Attack : 2 Fire, 2 Light Icons
Blocks : 2 or more Fire and Dark Icons
Comments : Reasonable defense for it's cost. Fire and Dark is not the most common Icon type though.